Drinking cup



get. 2, 193 w lNMAN 1,975,546

DRINKING CUP Filed June 20, 1933 INVENTOR W A T ORNEY Patented Oct. 2,1934 DRINKING CUP William H. Inman, Newark, N. Y., assignor to BloomerBros. Company, Newark, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application June20, 1933, Serial No. 676,693

4 Claims. (01. 215-100) This invention relates to drinking cups and hasfor its object the provision of a simple and satisfactory drinking cupwhich may be attached to the neck of a bottle to assist in drinkingliquid from the bottle.

A further object is the provision of a cup which can be madeeconomically by existing machinery at a minimum of expense.

To these and other ends the invention resides in certain improvementsand combinations of parts, all as will be hereinafter more fullydescribed, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the endof the specification.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a cup constructed in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same applied to a bottle;

Fig. 3 is a plan of the cup and bottle shown in Fig. 2;

1 bottles, to provide glasses into which the liquid may be poured inorder to be dr nk.

The present invention provides a simple, compact, and inexpensivedrinking cup which may be attached to the neck of a bottle after the capor other bottle closure has been removed, and which facilitates drinkingthe liquid from the bottle, while at the same time requiring only onehand to hold both the bottle and the cup, leaving the persons other handfree for any other use, as for example holding a sandwich being eaten atthe same time.

Referring now to the drawing, which illustrates a cup constructed inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, there is showna cup made up from suitable sheet material such as cardboard orfiberboard, preferably of fiberboard having a plurality ofplies. The cuphas a bottom 10 which is preferably flat or substantially flat, andsuitable walls rising upwardly from this bottom.

The bottom is provided with an aperture 11 (Figs. 5 and 6) of slightlysmaller size or diameter than the groove 12 usually found in the upperportion of the neck 13 of a conventional beverage bottle 14. The bottom10 is provided immediately around this opening 11 with a resilientportion which may be deformed when a bottle neck is thrust through theopening, so that the edges of the opening will allow the neck to enterthe opening and will engage relatively tightly with the bottle neck toprovide a substantially liquid tight joint.

One way of forming the edge of the opening which has been found to beextremely satisfactory in use, is to provide it with outwardly ex-.tending slits to form a plurality of resilient tongues around theopening. Preferably the slits do not extend all the way through thebottom, but certain slits extend from one side partly through the bottomand other slits extend from the other side partly through the bottom,out of alinement with the first slits. I

As before stated, the bottom is preferably constructed of fiberboardhaving a plurality of plies.

It will be readily understood by those familiar with fiberboard thatthese plies are to some extent interlaced with and bound to each other,but that they nevertheless can be separated by slight force. Fig. 6indicates diagrammatically one or more upper plies 10 and one or morelower plies 10 and the line of cleavage 10 between them. Usually it ispreferred to use about four plies in making up the fiberboard employedfor manufacturing the drinking cups of the present invention, in whichcase the line 10 would indicate diagrammatically the junction betweenthe two middle plies, and the portions 10 and 10 would each consist oftwo plies, but obviously the number may be varied as desired.

The slits 20, shown in full lines in Fig. 5 and indicateddiagrammatically in Fig. 6, preferably extend downwardly from the topsurface of the bottom member 10 through the plies constitutingapproximately the upper half of the thickness of the bottom member, andterminate at or slightly below the cleavage plane 10. Between and out ofalinement with these slits are other slits indicated by the dotted lines21 in Fig. 5, and shown diagrammatically in Fig. 6, which extendupwardly from the bottom through the plies constituting approximatelythe bottom half of the member 10, and terminate at or slightly above thecleavage plane 10. Thus there are formed in effect two series of tongueswhich overlap and break joints with each other, and which are capable ofseparating from each other along the cleavage plane 10 so that thetongues of one series may slide on or slip relatively to the tongues ofthe other series. When a bottle neck is thrust upwardly through theopening 11, the tongues are deformed curled up to permit entrance of thebottle neck, and then engage resiliently with the groove 12 near the topof the bottle neck, substantially as shown diagrammatically in Fig. 4,the resilience of the tongues causing them to press tightly against thebottle neck and the overlapping relation of the two plies or layers oftongues causing them to maintain a substantially liquid tightjoint.

The bottom 10 of the cup is preferably of polygonal shape and in theform here shown it is substantially square. Suitable walls rise upwardlyfrom the side edges of the bottom, such as the walls 30 which may bedesignated for convenience as the front and back walls of the cup, andthe walls 31 which may be designated for convenience as the side walls.When the cup is made from the blank illustrated in Fig. 5, the sidewalls 31 may each be formed of two overlapping portions 31 and 31 gluedtogether and embracing between them a flap 32 attached to the side ofthe bottom 10 as plainly shown in Fig. 5, thus making a liquid tightjoint between the side walls and the front or back walls, andalsobetween all of these walls and the bottom.

As it is frequently inconvenient to drink from a fiat plane surface,provision is made in the present cup for readily deforming one or moreof the walls out of a plane to make it of a shape more convenient fordrinking. For example, the front and back walls 31 may each have scorelines 35 extending obliquely upwardly from the lower corners of the walland meeting at a point intermediate the height of the wall andsubstantially on the center line thereof, and a score line 36 extendingupwardly from this junction substantially along the center line to theupper edge of the side. These more lines 35 and 36 may be either cutscores or embossed scores, though preferably cut scores are employed.When a side 30 is scored as thus indicated, it is readily apparent thatthe upper portion of it may be deformed to a somewhat V-shape as plainlyillustrated in Fig. 3, for example, thus making the upper edge of thiswall more convenient to drink from. In addition the upper edge may bemade of any desired shape or form in a vertical direction, as forexample having a scallop or depression 40 formed therein.

It will be understood that in the preferred embodiment the entire cup ismade from a single piece of sheet material such as fiberboard having apluralityof plies, and is formed up from a blank suitably shaped asshown for example in Fig. 5. After being formed up, the Walls of the cupare somewhat tapered as indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, so that a series ofsuch cups may be readily nested in each other for convenient shipping.

When the cup is to be used, the cap or other bottle closure is firstremoved and then the bottle neck is thrust through the bottom of the cupuntil the bottom engages the groove 12 near the top of the bottle neck,as indicated diagrammati cally in Figs. 2 and 4. With the parts in thisposition, the cup is held tightly on the bottle neck and will maintainits position so that it is not necessary to hold the cup separately butonly the bottle need be grasped by one hand. One edge of the cup is thenbrought to the persons lips and the bottle is tipped until the liquidruns from the bottle into the cup and fills the cup approximately up tothe edge with which the lips are engaged. Thus only one hand is neededfor drinking the entire contents of the bottle, and the other hand isfree for any other desired use, while at the same time drinking isaccomplished much more conveniently and expeditiously than when it isattempted to drink directly from the neck of the bottle. Also the cups,being small, can be manufactured comparatively inexpensively, and itwill be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that they may bemade by conventional machinery commonly available in the trade andusually found in most Well equipped factories engaged in making cartons,pails and the like.

It is to be noted that the walls of the cup extend up to a materialdistance above the top of the bottle neck. Thus as the liquid flows fromthe bottle neck, it will not flow against or inconveniently close to thedrinkers nose or lips, as might be the case if the bottle neck extendedup relatively near to the top of the cup.

While one embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it is to beunderstood that the inventive idea may be carried out in a number ofways. This application is therefore not to be limited to the precisedetails described, but is intended to cover all variations andmodifications thereof falling within the spirit of the invention or thescope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A drinking cup for attachment to the neck of a bottle, said cupcomprising a bottom having an opening through which the neck of a bottlemay be thrust, and a plurality of slits extending outwardly from saidopening to provide resilient tongues around said opening for closeengagement with a bottle neck, said slits extending through only a partof the thickness of said bottom.

2. A drinking cup for attachment to the neck of a bottle, said cupcomprising a bottom having an opening through which the neck of a bottlemay be thrust, and a plurality of slits extending outwardly from saidopening to provide resilient tongues around said opening for closeengagement with a bottle neck, certain of said slits extending from oneside of said bottom only part way through the thickness of said bottom,and certain others of said slits extending from the opposite side ofsaid bottom only part way through the thickness of said bottom inpositions out of alinement with the slits extending from the other side.

3. A drinking cup for attachment to the neck of a bottle, said cupcomprising a bottom of fiber board made up of a plurality of plies andhaving an opening of slightly smaller size than a bottle neck so that abottle neck may be thrust through said opening by deforming the materialof said bottom around said opening, and a plurality of slits in saidfiber board extending in a direction outwardly from the edge of saidopening, certain of said slits extending from one side of said fiberboard through at least one of said plies but not through the entirethickness of said board, and others of said slits extending from theopposite side of said board through at least one of said plies but notthrough the entire thickness of said board.

'4. A drinking cup for attachment to the neck of a bottle, said cupcomprising a bottom of fiber board made up of a plurality of plies andhaving an opening of slightly smaller size than a bottle neck so that abottle neck may be thrust through said opening by deforming the materialof said bottom around said opening, and a plurality of slits in saidfiber board extending in a direction outwardly from the edge of saidopening, certain of said slits extending from one side of said fiberboard through at least one of said plies but not throughthe entirethickness of said board, and others of said slits extending from the

